Founder of Mother’s Day Tried to Stop It

The second Sunday of this month is the 101^st birthday of Mother’s Day. It’s the annual celebration of the day set aside to honor mothers for their devotions and sacrifices to their families.

Anna Jarvis is responsible for getting President Woodrow Wilson to push a proclamation through the U.S. Congress to officially recognize Mother’s Day as a national celebration in 1914. She started the celebration to honor her own mother, Ann Jarvis, who was a pioneer in helping working class men and women. Ann Jarvis founded Mother’s Day Work Clubs in the late 1800’s. She exposed the horrid working conditions factory workers had to endure. She did this before the benefits of work unions helped to improve working conditions.

By 1920, however, Jarvis (Anna, the daughter) started a national movement to eliminate the annual celebration. Jarvis insisted that the meaning of Mother’s Day to honor mothers had been lost in the commercialism of buying cards, gifts and flowers. She insisted that children needed to hand write letters of appreciation to their mothers and express their gratitude and love in the personal notes. The appropriate flower to present to mothers, according to Jarvis, was a single carnation.

Jarvis, the daughter, incorporated the Mother’s Day International Association and held the trademark for the phrase Mother’s Day. The world-wide payouts for the trademark made her rich and she used her wealth to fund campaigns to eliminate the celebration of mothers. Her fight against the national day drained her fortune, and she died in poverty in 1948. The founder of Mother’s Day never married and died without having children.

The annual celebration for mothers will account for approximately three billion dollars in the United States. Families will average $173.00 for the typical cost of cards, candy, flowers and taking mothers out to eat. Florists, restaurants, retail stores and movie theaters are among the businesses that benefit from the money spent on Mother’s Day.

Since the annual event falls on a Sunday, the expenses of days off for both government and private sector businesses don’t apply. It’s a win-win day for everyone, especially mothers who get the presents.

Thanks for reading this blog. Look for a new blog later this month. See my website www.joevlatino.com for information about my book of short stories, “The Device.”